JOH Picnic

I've got a bazillion packages of rice noodles that Van left here when she went home, so I am looking for lots of different recipes to make to use them up. The other night I made Pad Thai, which is a bit spicy and I wasn't sure Holly would eat it. I should have known better!
She didn't even mention that it was spicy until the last bite or two that she took. She must have gotten an especially spicy bite or something.

Yesterday we went over to Seattle and spent the night. Today was the 2nd annual reunion picnic for the adoption agency's Taiwan program. Its nice that Holly is big enough this year to play on the playground equipment by herself.

She doesn't usually like swings very much, but she liked the ones at the park we went to Friday night and she was OK with them today. Maybe the tide is turning and they are becoming fun now!

As usual, Holly RAN everywhere she went; no walking for this little girl! (Often resulting in a cut off head in pictures like this one)

Holly played really well with the other kids except one boy who spent the entire time shoving all the other kids out of his way (Rude!). Fortunately, Holly would tell him things like "I'm going first." or "Its my turn." or "No, you wait!" And sometimes he would even listen - but not usually. Other parents said something to him on several occasions, but I figured Holly was doing a good enough job for herself. I did wonder where HIS parent was, though!

K & Holly had fun playing together. We met K at AIT in Taipei with her family when they were adopting her brother. They also sat by us on the airplane on our way home. It was really great to see them again! They weren't at the picnic last year, so I'm glad they could make it this year.

Here is Holly with one of the babies who has recently come home. I feel like a heal because I can't remember the little girl's name - and its only been 6 hours since I saw her! She was darling, though. When Holly got up from sitting next to the little girl, she started crying because she wanted Holly with her. How cute is that?!

Here are Holly & S, the little boy referenced above, who was getting his passport & visa the same time Holly was at AIT.

I wouldn't normally post a picture with lots of other people in it without their permission, but I figure its kinda hard to tell who any of them are unless you already know. These were most of the kids who were there and a few of the parents. All the other parents were taking pictures, of course! I think there were as many people with cameras as there were in the picture.

My plan was that Holly would wear herself out at the picnic, fall asleep in the car, and sleep most of the way home. She DID wear herself out and fall asleep, but she woke up in Issaquah (like 30 minutes from Shoreline!) and announced she was hungry, so we went through the drive thru at McDonald's...and she stayed awake the entire rest of the trip! So, she's going to bed very, very soon to make up for it.

Next year, I think that we will stay for another day and go do a few things around Seattle before we leave. I hope someone reminds me of that next year, because I'll probably forget by then!

When It Is Hot Outside...

It has been pretty hot here and apparently it will continue to be hot until next week. When its this hot, I really hate going outside just to sit around and sweat. So, I have found a few things to do inside that have been both productive and keep me from getting bored.

The first thing I did was to turn the extra bedroom back into Holly's toy/play room. All of the toys are out of the family room finally!!! In one corner of the play room are all of Holly's dolls, strollers, etc. There's a dresser just to the right which has baby clothes in the bottom drawer, and Holly's dress up clothes in the drawer above that.
Her tent has been put back up (Salem, the cat, is very appreciative since he loves to sleep inside) and the blocks & big Legos are in another corner.

Holly's fabric storage boxes fit perfectly on the window sill, and her dollhouse, Little People barn, and other random toys are in the third corner. Obviously, Holly really likes being in her new play room and spends a lot of time in there. She is also VERY good about picking up when she is finished playing and I tell her its time to clean up. She is getting to where she knows where different things go without me having to tell her where it goes.

This past weekend, we went up to my parents to hang out and visit. Saturday evening, we went to a baseball game in Spokane. Before the game started, we found a lady who brings a couple of her older horses to the games for kids to ride (for free!). She says it gives the older horses some exercise, while also providing some fun for the kids at games. Despite the look on Holly's face, she loved riding the horse and didn't want to get off.

We went to a quilting meeting at the church on Monday with my mom. While we were there, some of the ladies were going through several boxes & bags of fabric, sewing supplies, and patterns that had been donated to the church quilting group. In the bags were some really cute patterns for children's pajamas and dresses. One of the lady's suggested that I take a couple of them home with me, since they were Holly's size or will be within a year or two. She said they wouldn't get used there, so they might as well get used by me.

After the meeting, we went to Ben Franklin so that I could get some fabric to start a dress or two for Holly. Today, I actually started the first dress because it was too darned hot to do much outside. I was amazed at how easy the pattern was - even the scary parts like the gathers at the waist! So easy, in fact, that I actually finished the dress today!! Well, except for the zipper, since I don't have a zipper foot for my sewing machine (grrr!!!). Here is the finished dress.

And a close up of the top of the front.

Here is the back...without the zipper, of course. =( I was hoping that Holly could wear her new dress on Saturday when we go to Seattle for the JOH picnic. Unless something spectacular happens in the next couple of days, that is not going to happen.

I can't believe that I really made a dress "from scratch" all by myself! I didn't even have to call someone to ask a dumb question about how to do something. I am also really impressed that I could get it all done in one day! I have another fabric to do a second dress, so that one should go even faster since I know what I am doing now!

Now I've got to figure out some more indoor things to do since it is going to remain hot for a while. I do have a "to do" list of things I want to get finished this summer, so maybe I will make those a top priority or else I'm going to run out of summer.

Bye Bye Binkie!

Holly was invited over to the neighbor's to play in the kiddie pool the other day. The girls had JUST filled it up with water, so Holly was not at all interested in playing in a pool of cold water. She was, however, interested in the pink lip gloss that the girls put on her!

The girls talked me into letting them take Holly to the pool by themselves. They took her in the wagon. One the way home, they wrapped Holly up like a little burrito baby in towels to keep her warm.

I found some hotwheel cars that I bought for Holly last year but didn't give her because they have small parts that are choking hazards. Now that I know Holly doesn't really put things in her mouth when she plays, its ok for her to have them. She put them in her little yellow pail to carry around since she couldn't figure out how to carry them all at the same time.

Holly has found lots of ways to entertain herself now that we are home. She likes to empty out her toy boxes and sit in them. Its warm enough now that Holly can run around in just a diaper in the evenings.

When we got home from Vietnam, Holly was all screwed up in a number of ways (eating, sleeping, etc.) and I figured that I might as well "de-bink" her during all the chaos. I just didn't give her binkie when she went to bed or down for a nap. Sometimes, she would ask for binkie and I would tell her I didn't know where it was or that I couldn't find it right then. She only asked a few times and only for a couple of days. Once we got home from my parents, I put ALL her binkies away and Holly only threw a fit about binkie once. She hasn't even asked in a couple of days, so I think we are in the clear! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, especially after as much as she used binkie while we were in Vietnam. So, bye bye, binkie!

I'm in the process of getting the other bedroom turned back into a play room. I'm still waiting for the lady to come pick up the bed that I borrowed for Van to use. She said she would be here yesterday morning or this morning, and never showed up, so the bed may go out into the garage over the weekend until she comes to get it. It will be nice to have more room for Holly to spread out with her toys and NOT have them all out in the family room.

Back into the swing of things

Our last few hours in Vietnam consisted of a few pictures,
buying more diapers for the plane ride home, and eating dinner.

Van's mom bought Holly a Winnie the Pooh party hat. The dress that Holly is wearing here is one of five that Van's cousin made for her while we were there.

Still smiling while waiting to board the plane at 11:00 pm.

We didn't do anything special during the day on the 4th of July; just hung out at my parents and went to watch the fireworks in the evening. When Holly got up for breakfast, I looked out the kitchen windows and saw a deer in the yard. This is a regular occurrence, but I love seeing the deer.

Yesterday afternoon when we got home from my parents, Holly *should* have taken a nap, but instead she played with every single toy that she owns!

Or so it seemed from the mess that was made.

She was so excited to be HOME and back with everything familiar. She ate an entire pb&j sandwich for the first time since we arrived back home, and spent some time with all her favorite toys, books, and dolls.

I had a meeting Monday evening, so J came over to watch Holly. J asked Holly where she got something or other from and Holly said "In Vietnam." J did Holly's hair and they had lots of fun. Holly missed all her friends here and was just so happy!

She even slept all by herself in her own bed for the first time in three weeks! We BOTH got a great night's sleep!

Jet Lag...and We Are Home!

My biggest worry during the whole trip home was getting through customs with all my bags, stroller, car seat, Holly, etc. I had read & heard that in Seattle, you have to take everything upstairs and recheck them yourself. Customs was such a breeze, and the great thing was that you do have to take your bags to a different conveyor belt to transfer them, but they were ticketed all the way to Spokane, so all I had to do was go get boarding passes for our flight!

Holly fell asleep right after we got on the plane and was fast asleep by the time we were even out on the tarmac waiting our turn to take off. She slept all the way home, and all through my unpacking all my stuff. I (being the smart person that I am) asked my mom if SHE would get up with Holly at 3:00 am to play with her and let me sleep until morning, so that at least one of us would get over jet lag quickly. She (sucker that she is) said yes....but Holly woke up at about midnight, shortly after my mom had gone to bed!

I woke up for about an hour around 1:30, came downstairs to join the party in my parents room, then went back to bed and slept until 7:30 am. I am up and ready for the day! I had to force myself last night to stay up until 8:45, but adhering to local time as soon as possible is the key to overcoming jet lag quickly.

My new parenting philosophy on jet lag is going to be this: My kid's naps are so screwed up from the trip and traveling home that whenever it is that she finally wants to go down for a nap, I'll let her sleep for no more that 2-3 hours. I am guessing that she will want to fall asleep again this afternoon around 3-5ish and I will let her sleep for 2 hours, wake her up, and we will have to find something fun to do for several hours before I will let her go back to bed for the night. Basically, forcing her to switch to local time as soon as possible. I'll let you know how quickly this gets her back to local time. I don't really believe in the easing her gently back into it philosophy, especially considering that tomorrow is 4th of July!

Anyway, we are home safe and sound. All is well. We are healthy, happy, and with our family again. Holly has gotten some quality alone time with both Nana & Pop Pop this morning. And we are happy to be home!

In Seoul

We arrived in Seoul after a long five hour flight. The guy next to me kept invading my pace, there was a long legged guy behind me who kept kicking me under the seat, and we were located very near a little girl who screamed almost the entire flight. Not relaxing or restful for me, but Holly slept basically the entire time, though.

We got to Incheon Airport and checked into the Airport Transit Hotel, a short term stay hotel for international travelers that is located INSIDE SECURITY!!! From the time we landed to the time Holly & I were asleep in a bed was about 45 minutes. We both slept about 4 hours, then got up, took a shower, watched some TV, went to play in the awesome play area - one of many here! - and ate a late lunch. We are going to go back to the play area to kill a little more time, then check out and head for our gate.

Our flight to Seattle leaves at 6:30, so we have a couple more hours here before we board. Hopefully the longer flight will be more peaceful and restful! We will be home soon!

PS - Random question: If the Atlantic Ocean is the "pond," what is the Pacific Ocean? Anyone?

Day 17 - Last Day

Van said that today was very much like the day she left to go to America way back in September of last year. They skies are gray and gloomy, there was a great deal of thunder and lightening, and the clouds opened up into a torrential downpour earlier today. We had just left the bookstore a half block away, and made it back to the hotel before it started, but by the time we went down to the cafe for lunch it was crazy, crazy rain! I took a picture out the front door of the cafe, but you can hardly tell it is raining unless you look at the street & sidewalk where you can see the raindrops. You can also tell because there are only a couple of moving vehicles in this usually very busy intersection, and not a motorbike to be found. Its still cloudy and gray, but I don't think its raining anymore.
Van and Holly posed for one last picture together at lunchtime. They are so sweet! I told Holly that Van would stay here when we left to go back to America and she said "It makes me sad." Me too, baby girl, me too!

Holly even gave Van a rare kiss, which I can't believe I actually captured on...well, not film, but you know...digital, I guess.

As usual, we took naps after lunch. Then I took a shower and gave Holly a bath. We both put on clean clothes and are basically just killing time in the room until 5:30 when Van & Hai will be here. We have to be checked out by 6:00, but we don't have to be at the airport until 9:00, so I don't know how we are going to manage to eat dinner and waste a few hours with all this luggage, etc. Time will tell.

I'll try to post from Seoul, but can't promise that I will. Definitely a "we are home" post when we finally get back, just to let you all know we are safe & sound.